BPMN Naming Conventions Best Practices
There are no official naming conventions in BPMN, but here are a few best practices recognized over the years:
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✪ Always use keywords that are meaningful to the business
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Do not use uncommon abbreviations
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Do not use the element type in its name
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Avoid articles and pronouns
Activity
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✪ All Activities should be named
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✪ Name Activities using a Verb-Noun phrase
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Use the present tense of an active verb of meaning to the business
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Use a qualified noun of meaning to the business
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Do not name multiple Activities with the same name (except for Call Activities)
Gateways
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✪ Gateways do not perform any work or make decisions; it is simply a visualization of divergence or convergence of flow
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Do not name converging Gateways
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Associate a Text Annotation when convergence logic is not obvious
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✪ Name diverging Exclusive Gateways with an interrogative phrase
Sequence Flows
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✪ Name Sequence flows coming out of diverging Gateways of type Exclusive, Inclusive and Complex using their associated conditions stated as outcomes
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✪ Name Conditional Sequence Flows using their associated conditions stated as outcomes
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Do not name Default Sequence Flows
Events
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✪ All Events should be named
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✪ Name Message, Signal, Escalation, and Error Events with a past participle using an active verb
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✪ Name Link Event with a noun
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✪ Name paired Message, Link, Signal, Escalation, and Error Events using a matching name
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✪ Name Timer Events using their schedule
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✪ Name Conditional Events using their trigger condition
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✪ Name End Events using the name of the end state
Data Objects
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✪ All Data Objects should be named
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Name Data Objects using a qualified noun that is the name of a business object or information object of meaning to the business
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✪ Name multiple instances of the same Data Object (which are really Data Object References) using a matching name followed by the applicable State in square Brackets